A Look Inside the Hanoi Hilton

[@ConeOfArc]

Just to add to the video for anyone who was preparing to leave a comment. This video is not intended to be political or make claims that the North Vietnamese were the only ones guilty of poor treatment of people during the war. This video is intended to showcase one example of poor treatment of POWs during wartime.

[@cuongle7990]

Read the book "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam" by Nick Turse to see how close to 4000 Vietnamese prisoners are killed and tens of thousands more are permanently disabled in Côn Đảo prison alone. The International Red Cross made a whole report about that place but the world just want to forget about it. Maybe you should make a video about that if you truly want to showcase an example of poor treatment of POWs during wartime. Hanoi Hilton is a joke compare to Côn Đảo. In fact with what those US pilots were doing before they were caught, killing tens of thousands of civilians with bombs, its kind of magical that most of them return to the US alive.

[@jamesedwardladislazerrudo1378]

​@@cuongle7990 plus CIA hiring mercenaries during Vietnam

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

Stil better than Jepang

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

could you please also discuss the Second Boer War concentration camps

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

can you also discuss : Atrocities in the Congo Free State ( Belgium Holocaust in Africa) 13 million death

[@kidscode3702]

I visited this prison when I was 12 on a school trip and never really quite understood the importance of it until I was older and learned more about the war. Crazy to see the gullitones and piles of american wreckage. Theyre so proud of it all too, because from their perspective, it was all for defending their homeland.

[@TheArklyte]

Weird, considering right after that they had to defend their homeland from PLA colonialism and their Red Khmer puppets, BUT apparently they're not so proud of that?(despite actually stopping insane dictator and genocide in progress).

[@robertoroberto9798]

And the Tankies defending North Vietnam and portraying them as martyrs.

[@imnotusingmyrealname4566]

Uhm who was the foreign power in that war?

[@TheArklyte]

@@imnotusingmyrealname4566 France, US and PRC, in that order. USSR was also involved, but thankfully for vietnamese due to distance not as heavily.

[@leonodonoghueburke4276]

@@robertoroberto9798 "Tankies" really has turned into a useless term hasn't it?

[@uss_liberty_incident]

Thank you for covering this. Too often, war is made to look cool in media. This sort of coverage shows some of the unfortunate realities of what happened.

[@therealrat]

Every time I go to the American heritage museum I am blown away by the veterans I get to talk to on the show floor to the amazing WW2 reenactments they do in the summer. Every year it feels like they raise the bar higher and higher. Would highly recommend going

[@TricaGamer]

all murderers

[@tellyonthewall8751]

You should take a look at the docu or read the book "Hellstorm" .. there you see your beloved US of fc**ing A and what they did to europe & Germany AFTER the war in Europe was over !!.... Ohhh but that docu is not telling the glorified and "we are always right" state of the yanks ... it is always the others fault .. just like a little spoiled kid ... fc**ing yanks

[@Rediipandaii]

Where is it

[@therealrat]

@@Rediipandaii Marlborough Massachusetts

[@tonedeaftachankagaming457]

Great story, and the presentation is well done for a new style video. I've been meaning to get up to this museum and I think I'm sold now

[@csabaweisz8791]

To all those bloodthirsty wankers in the comment section: the actions of one country doesn't justify the torture of the average drafted POWs, because Talio's law only causes more unneccessary suffering and revenge

[@grandcanyon-d4d]

More volunteered than drafted, Americans did worse and it's fine?

[@hoangvunguyen4435]

Hi. If you guys ever come to Hanoi i highly suggest a visit to the Hilton. They even have a night tour for extra eeriness 😨

[@apersondoingthings5689]

I was working there on the opening day of the Hanoi Hilton exhibit, the veterans speaking about their experience and still cracking jokes just shows how resilient they were

[@alexdemoya2119]

Comment section is going to be a warzone

[@theromanorder]

Im just giving him a request for videos Im not even interested in watching this... im here for some tanks

[@minhtrungle9117]

Vietnamese here and just to get this out of the way, I object to the poor treatment of PoW among the countless atrocities that both sides committed in that war. But regarding Hanoi Hilton, US airmen were one of the most resented PoW in North Vietnam back in the day. The population held them accountable, regardless if it was ultimately a decision of the top level of the US government, for the brutal bombing campaign that was evidently clear to have caused massive collateral casualties, because at the end of the day it was they who dropped the bombs and whose planes the people heard and saw. They brought the war to the urban population whose children were already sent to the army, and showed them that "US imperialism" was indeed such a thing to viciously oppose. On my mother side, my grandmother lost her entire uncle's family when a 500-pounder demolished an apartment building with them inside. And so, when US airmen was brought into North Vietnamese prisons with little sympathy from the population to start with, prison personnel (many of whom lost family members to US bombing) lashed out on them. There seem to be a somewhat popular sentiment circulating in the US that the treatment of these PoW was unjust, but for Vietnamese families who spent 30 years in a state of constant warfare, those airmen were lucky to be in prison rather than being dead on the street of Hanoi from all the lynching that would come down on them.

[@VNExperience]

Very well stated, Mình. It's important to provide context for this, not excusing any poor treatment. It was war and atrocities were committed by both sides. I'm very happy to have seen the Vietnam-US relations improve over the decades and that Americans don't face any animosity from the locals when visiting Vietnam. As one Vietnamese officer put it, "Americans were our enemy then. It was war and we won. Now we can be friends again." I'm paraphrasing but that's essentially what he said. I've been living in HCM (Saigon) for a decade and visited Cu Chi and Khe San with American Vietnam vets and former VC and NVA. It's humbling to see former foes put their past differences aside and openly share their experiences. The only way forward is acknowledging the past and looking into the future. All the best, Mikael

[@funkykunx2544]

I'm actually from Hanoi myself. Hỏa Lò, aka, Hanoi Hilton always had been a stain in my eyes as I studied about it quite a lot. The compound is a reminder of a past that should be forgave but not forget. In the modern period, it's good that both Vietnam and US are friends instead of enemy, but from time to time, we as men of older generations, have the responsibility to educate young people. Thank you ConeOfArc to not only gave us incredible videos of armoured vehicles but also important history discussions like this

[@mbryson2899]

Thank you for taking me along. Health no longer permits me to travel which makes videos like this particularly important.

[@William_Bryant]

“Better living through Canister” is supremely based.

[@RedSoo749]

"the presentation will start in" oh my god they even had unskippable mandatory attendance video calls, i can't even imagine what they've been through

[@alexlapointe4220]

Just went to the museum today. So blown away by this and how it looks. What an experience it was and my son loved it all too. Especially the scavenger hunt they have.

[@shadowwarriorshockwave3281]

Leading With Honor is a phenomenal book about leadership and the pyche of POWS At Hanoi Hilton

[@scottsackett4665]

Excellent coverage. I appreciate that museums like this exist to share our veteran's stories.

[@Hybris51129]

Great video with a shockingly even depressingly terrible comment section.

[@sceligator]

Absolutely incredible video. I'd love to visit Vietnam one day for myself but this is the next best thing (bar the food)

[@jatzbethstappen9814]

I enjoyed this video and am grateful you adopted a different approach. Great work as always and thank you for your content.

[@pault1289]

Absolutely interested in this type of content, liked and subscribed. Thanks for taking the time to film this, I wasn't aware of any material from the prison being outside of Vietnam.

[@briand5170]

The American heritage museum is great, I went there when it opened and they had a really neat WW1 trench exhibit to give you an idea what it looked like sitting in a trench with no man’s land in front of you. There was even a half built (Ford?) because the production line was stopped for war material.

[@nemesis7774]

That's a really interesting place to visit

[@Alan.jn02]

Thank you so much for covering this! I've heard things here and there about that story, but not this much. It was also very interesting to hear about all the saving of the actually materials of that prison and about the soldiers time in the prison cells well if you can even call that a cell that is. Anyway thank you once again! I've never heard of that museum before, and now it's on list of museums to visit with my history buff friends😁!

[@MarcusTivey]

Really enjoyed this video, really well researched and presented content as ever from CofA. I can’t think why it doesn’t have as many views as the tank stuff. Perhaps it’s length is putting people off, and it’s off the more usual track?

[@anonymouskultist]

This was a very welcome change of pace.

[@imnotusingmyrealname4566]

This shows that private collectors are absolutely vital for the preservation of history.

[@murci981]

I am so pissed off rn YT didn´t recomend a single video of yours for like 2 months I have so much catching up to do.

[@nathangreig5884]

This was a very interesting video thank you

[@Jaggerbush]

I was there (the real HH) on Christmas Eve 2019 - then caught an overnight train Da Nang for Christmas and then on to HMC. For a Pittsburgh city boy .. it was insane that i found myself in South East Asia for 5 weeks. Not too shabby.

[@andrewreynolds4949]

Here from the stupid comment video to right a wrong, and give this well-produced piece some attention

[@carlmontney7916]

All I will say is only those who lived through this period and who've experienced and witnessed everything that was happening first hand will know exactly what it was like. I remember sitting in front of the TV set. Watching some guy call out numbers and sitting there wondering if my life was going to be totally upended and I might be drafted and sent to Vietnam. Where I might possibly be killed as some of my friends already had been. I also have people I knew who didn't believe in the war and went to Canada. They might as well have been dead too because I never saw them again either. My number did not get called but many people I know their numbers did get called. Like I said some of them never came home. Some came home physically. Crippled for life. Some came home mentally crippled. I will stay here and now that the way our Vietnam veterans were treated on their arrival back home is one of the biggest black marks against our nation in it's history. It was a sick and disgusting way that these young people were treated upon their return. Being spat on and called a baby killer was horrible. And that type of behavior is just not some BS story that's been made up. I witnessed it first hand. Like I said, if you didn't live through this as it happened, you have no idea how it was. I can't say for sure, but it would certainly seem that those who are posting on here in the comment section about the imperialist who were invading their country probably are too young to remember this time. Or weren't even born yet at the time. They have grown up in their country which is a communist country. Therefore, any history they see and learn in their schools is going to be the communist side of the story. That said. All one needs to do is go back and look at the historical evidence of the fall of Saigon and the thousands of South Vietnamese citizens who were trying to get out of the country as fast as they could and any way they could. They knew what was in store for them when the communists rolled into town. And that was death. For them as well as their families. A very sad time in the history of both countries. Which just goes to prove more and more. That war does nothing except bring out the worst in humanity yet we can continue to kill each other off. It is absolutely senseless.

[@bossalan4767]

if you did live through this, i greatly thank you for your input. ive never considered anything from the perspective of someone who DID live through that time period, and this let me know a little more. im also glad you are aware of how the south feared the invasion of the north. nobody ever considers the aftermath, and its relieving to know at least somebody does.

[@carlmontney7916]

@@bossalan4767 yes I was 18 and eligible for the draft. At first I was in favor of what we were trying to do there. I had friends who were a bit older and had already been there. When they came home I started to change my mind. They told me flat out. Whatever you do do not go there. It is a totally unwinnable mess and you will be nothing more than a bullet stopper in a uniform. They also went on to say that this was not a direct attack on our country like it was at Pearl harbor. It wasn't that they were not Patriots and didn't support their country. It was that they didn't support dying for nothing except some politicians desire to be a nation builder. Sadly all this time later we are still involved in these nation building proxy wars and it would seem that we have learned nothing.

[@ThisGuyAd.]

Some guy in Vietnam found a way to turn bricks into Gold.

[@mrconductor2004]

visited the remaining part of the prison few months earlier , it mostly displayed the french colonial rule , and all the bells and whistle for all the prisoner , a Guillotine , solitary cells , huge slab of concrete with shackles for everyone , etc.... also a few exhibition for the american POW but we showed them having turkey for christmas . thanks giving and overall a jolly good time , and the end of the museam trip . no mention of what we did with the american pow , and i just assumed we prob did the same thing to the american , the things the french did to us .

[@Thatguy-zd6lp]

im 100% going on a road trip there

[@arduha3590]

will there be a video on the tank found in game world of tanks the O-I ?

[@LongNgo-eg4ft]

25:30 lol he about to say "the jap"

[@RedSoo749]

great video and cool guys at the expo!

[@andysvehiclehistorychannel]

I believe it's an original SDKFZ 222

[@fonjonisgood9144]

Great video

[@depguy6142]

the pilots that were sent into the hanoi hilton were the lucky ones,if you are an american pilot that got captured by the civilians,you would probably end up being killed instantly or being sent to the nearest military base

[@LuigianoMariano]

Where's the John K. Rambo exhibit?

[@A54729]

Amazing video. I love your channel. Screw Jane Fonda!

[@leonell4433]

Pvt. Joker, you doing it well

[@amdasaba]

First I would like to apology for the brutality inflict upon POWs, not many can hold themselves back when their relatives got bombed to pieces. Secondly I think if we knew you guy would buy this brick by brick, we would have sold the whole thing in exchange for agent orange restitution.

[@mikedrop4421]

I agree! We've just recently started compensation for our own soldiers that suffered. You know, now that almost all have passed away. I love my country but we have a lot of things we have to fix.

[@helicopter7762]

I just killed you in war thunder in my sturmtiger while you was in your TIS MA and honestly made my past 2 years ❤❤

[@chadknight4379]

"poor me"

[@QuangMinhVũ-z7c]

Our goverment didn’t say anything about this in the books that we learn.

[@sleddy01]

Opened by the French to imprison the Vietnamese. Karma is a bitch

[@raven_1133]

Hey Cone, this isn’t a shitty comment going off on you. I was just wondering, for your tank videos that is, what would the most reliable sources be if I were to want to research like you do.

[@ConeOfArc]

The most reliable information you can find would be by looking in both physical and digital archives. I know the US has quite a bit of info available online and other archives let you request copies for a small fee. Other than that you can find trustworthy people like the work of Hilary Doyle and Tom Jentz which is fairly reliable outside of anything which has been uncovered since they wrote their books. When all else fails trying to at least find 2-3+ sources that agree is normally good but can still open itself to errors.

[@Isylon]

All I can say is, remember My Lai, Operation Speedy Express, the bombing of Cambodia and Laos, and Agent Orange.

[@PosadasLeftFemur]

I dont know how the yanks can see themselves as any kind of victim when they did shit like that. Fucking imperialists.

[@Dommifax]

Yeah at least most American POW survived - can't say the same for Vietnamese civilians in US conquered regions

[@onEmEmbErstudios]

South Korean: "You guys are taking prisoners?"

[@sanic7402]

All I can say is watch the damn video. It's not trying to act like the Americans did nothing wrong this is just a look at one specific aspect stop trying to act like you did something

[@YourAverageTankNerd]

When was this made? Last time i went there they never had this

[@theromanorder]

Can u please do a video on whats a main battle tank, another or in same video whats a medium tank, A video on tank reapers and logistics if u want to do like a once a month big video.... Final request a video on where should the turret be front or back

[@EpsilonDoesStuff]

0:54 Isn't that because America hadn't formally declared war, so as a result the Geneva convention didn't apply?

[@onEmEmbErstudios]

I was skeptical when you announced the episode about Hỏa Lò prison. I am a Vietnamese, and I have studied the war in both perspectives. I think the Hanoi Hilton was still better than South Vietnam's prisons at the time.

[@ConeOfArc]

I'm not trying to compare it to other prisons in this video. This is a look at that specific place and the treatment of the prisoners not claiming it was worse than another prison.

[@Kingpin6100]

Based Vietnam, using a prison built by French imperialists to own American imperialists attempting to genocide their people

[@Windows95__]

"tell my your leftist without telling me your leftist"

[@alexdemoya2119]

lemme guess, holodomor didnt happen right?

[@Tom-uk2ow]

@@alexdemoya2119 from wich country you are?So we can talk..

[@bossalan4767]

leftists realizing what the ARVN is (they dont understand the concept of war)

[@Lord.Kiltridge]

Do you mean biased? If you do, I agree whole heartedly. First the Vietnamese were abused by the Chinese, then the French, then the Japanese, then the French again. When they finally got independence, the Diem government was incompetent, corrupt, and failed to unite the nation because of bias towards a Catholic minority. All the hatred directed at the Americans, was a product of generations of suffering brought by foreigners.

[@marcusmustermann6564]

People in this comment section arguing is like a pile of vomit telling a pile of shit how disgusting they are 😂

[@penguinsmovies]

It's sick to sit there and listen to them say that they deserved it. What is wrong with people nowadays.

[@siaratan9982]

"Look how bad they treated us after we invaded, poisoned, burned and killed them 😭😭😭"

[@digitaal_boog]

And that justifies it how exactly?

[@siaratan9982]

@@digitaal_boog nothing justifies anything, but you can't expect the NVA to treat the Americans at a 5 star luxury lounge can you?

[@muttipi]

@@digitaal_boogne terrorist attack sponsored by saudi arabia justified the US continuously invading multiple middle eastern countries to steal their resources and rob their banks, excluding the one’s actually involved in the 9/11 attacks. Vietnam holding foreign war criminals responsible for the crimes they propagated in the name of western imperialism and french colonialism isn’t shit compared to anything the american empire and it’s lackies have been responsible for.

[@bricklingtonlego]

USA did not need to partake in the Vietnam War for how long it did. Especially with the way and tactics of murdering civilians to damage Vietcong morale despite them defending their homeland which had been under unorthodox French Rule for centuries.

[@reentrysfs6317]

​@@muttipi countries do not go to war to outright steal recourses that's a populist myth Though a lot do the time debt can be exchanged for land use rights though that has not happened in Iraq Afghanistan or any place. In reality it was to build up a friendly democratic power in the middle East as a us strong point. Off course that went to heck at first though the plan appears to have worked after a long while for iraq.

[@zyphrorodriguez6548]

When cursed by design but ships

[@mukhtar__]

ooh boi, that was a doosie

[@NguyenLyubyuStrana]

BRO I WAS THERE LAST WEEK IT CALLED *hon hon le french text cannot read*

[@samwill7259]

You know, this would be a sucky, inhumane thing to happen to American soldiers ...and then you remember Gitmo's still open

[@ConeOfArc]

How does that nullify the poor treatment of these POWs?

[@samwill7259]

@@ConeOfArc Turnabout is fair play, as they say. Considering the metric SHITLOAD of warcrimes American soldiers committed in Vietnam for a war we never should have been in in the first place.

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

@@ConeOfArc stil better than Jepang. And they western war criminal

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

@@samwill7259 poor guys who got locked up for years without charges and no rights like we have on the mainland

[@Wolfe_Blue]

Hi

[@Badger13x]

Democratic Republic ohh the irony !!

[@cuongle7990]

Oh yes the irony of the US calling itself a Republic while being a surveillance state that wage wars and topple governments non stop since the day it was founded.

[@anarchopupgirl]

Yeah man, imagine thinking the American Republic was ever a democracy lol

[@apersondoingthings5689]

@@anarchopupgirlwait what, the us has always been a democracy

[@sravans149]

First 🗿

[@TricaGamer]

They deserved everything they got for an unjustified war

[@stormer9952]

We should've dropped more agent orange fr fr.

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

Tf?

[@witmanntheinfinite]

Yeah imagine being a stupid ass american think that war is cool and war crime is awesome. Somebody is like that until a noose is hanged around your kneck or a gun next to your head, then you think about it

[@cadam007]

Lock 'em up!

[@super1daan]

I mean, the yanks had it coming

[@SandrasSpicySpanishSalami]

War Crims get some *SPICYFANTA* _Agento Orango_ in them sinuses. 🍔 🍊💨 🌳

[@shisponk8378]

Proud of my Vietnamese comrades

[@sternencolonel7328]

geneva conventions "cough "gitmo" cough"

[@tellyonthewall8751]

And what about Guantanamo ... Abu Ghraib ... CIA prison flights to some questionable countries .. etc. reg. US of fc**ing A